Pankration!

[Huevriel]

Yes, some of us still actively do Pankration. I have a few level 50's and still make more pankration mobs. Only sitting at 30K+ jettons though.

My suggestion: can we please get some more mobs into pankration?
Mobs I'd like to see:
[] Ruszor
[] Gnoles
[] Peiste
[] Gnats
[] Ladybugs
[] Rafflesia
[] Poroggos (both kinds)
[] Cardians

What do you think?

[Frost]

Fuck Yeah!

I have literally been waiting since the first day of these forums' existence for the first Pankration thread, and the day has finally come!

I got 2 mega-squids I am so happy with. I'd be happy with a higher level/skill cap personally.

!!!

[Catsby]

Would be nice to see pankration updated. unfortunately we are likely to see a completely different variation of it in a new zone instead.

[Camate]

All you hardcore pankration-ers will be happy to hear that we received word from the lead saying he would like to make adjustments to the system as well as add new ways of playing and rewards. However, it will be a little while before we implement anything.

[Lazus]

All you hardcore pankration-ers will be happy to hear that we received word from the lead saying he would like to make adjustments to the system as well as add new ways of playing and rewards. However, it will be a little while before we implement anything.

ah cool hopefully they add new mobs and nice reward, I like Pankration, but hardly do it anymore because there really doesn't seem a point to it without having a goal to it or reward. Maybe be able to upgrade mobs for pankration through magian trials.

[Rhianu]

Personally, one of the biggest things that stops me from participating in Pankration, aside from the lack of rewards, is just how horribly boring the whole thing is. No offense, but Pankration battles are nothing but a big, giant yawn-fest. All you do is stand there and watch two monsters smack each other a few times. Sure, you can sort of take "control" of the action when your monster is in the ring, but it doesn't feel like you're actually in control, and that's the problem.

I leveled one monster to the maximum way back when Pankration was first introduced, simply because it was something new; it was a novelty. But once that novelty wore off (which was after about one week), I realized the system simply didn't have enough depth to remain entertaining on its own merits.

Adding new rewards to obtain is a step in the right direction, but if the dev team is serious about getting people interested in Pankration again, they're going to need to completely redesign the way Pankration battles work. If all they do is add new rewards and new pets, interest in the system will be piqued momentarily, but will die off again once everyone has gotten the new rewards.

If the dev team wants interest in Pankration to last, then they have to get people interested in the system itself, and not just the rewards it provides. To do that, they need to make the system fun. Right now, it simply isn't fun.

In my opinion, to make Pankration fun to play, SE should completely change the whole Pankration battle system so that the selection options during a Pankration battle aren't so horribly vague and generic. It sucks all the fun out of the system because it doesn't feel like I'm actually controlling what's going on. Give us specific commands so we can control the action directly, and get rid of the general options that don't seem to do anything or make much of a difference.

I want to actually feel like I'm controlling my monsters directly, not just cheering them on from the sidelines.

For example, instead of just having our Pankration monsters stand there and do battle automatically, it would be much more fun if we actually had direct control over them, just like we have direct control over our characters, and then we could use attacks and abilities manually, rather than having to just give boring, general instructions and watch our pets do their own thing.

At the very least, make it kinda like Pokémon, where you choose specific abilities from a list, and then your monster executes those abilities immediately. That would be much better and far more entertaining than just watching the monsters fight on their own.

[Supersun]

If you are planning on doing anything like raising the level cap can you do something about the elementals like not give them as many points per level? They have WAY too many points for the inherent -PDT they have and the default traits they can get.

[Karbuncle]

All you hardcore pankration-ers will be happy to hear that we received word from the lead saying he would like to make adjustments to the system as well as add new ways of playing and rewards. However, it will be a little while before we implement anything.

I mentioned this in the other Pankration Threads, But please still see this.

Add an Imperial Standing Reward to Pankration fights, It doesn't need to be huge, Just a small Imperial Standing Reward for Winning a fight!

Since the death of Merit Parties, Getting Imperial Standing is rough (Well, Rougher), adding a Reward like IS to Pankration would revive the content to even people who don't thoroughly enjoy it. (I know i still like it).

There could also be several more different reward (Like maybe an Orc, Yag, Quad, and Gob Hat that effects Feral Drain with some neat bonuses? to go with the Lam/Qiq/Orc/Mam)

[Alhanelem]

What about Ballista? What about the other area of the colosseum as well?

[GlobalVariable]

If you are planning on doing anything like raising the level cap can you do something about the elementals like not give them as many points per level? They have WAY too many points for the inherent -PDT they have and the default traits they can get.

I have a pet that absolutely chews up elementals. What's broken isn't the elementals traits and add on plates, but the fact that the battles are skewed by die rolls that almost always favor the current champion. Once my critter is "in" everyone has had to wait for my battle count to cap out, because nothing, not even the supposedly "invincible" elementals can beat it. Most things that look like they have a hope against my pet wind up timing out and lose by default. That's another thing - if the champ has even 1 hp left at the end of the timer, the champ wins. Even if the challenger took zero damage.

And as mentioned by another poster, the "controls" don't make you feel like you did anything. The pet is still on autopilot even after you have it obeying your commands. It is just a shift in AI. This makes it very boring. It would be nice to have more strategic elements, such as adding 2hrs to the mobs and directly controlling when they go off.

[Spamtastic]

omg, i cannot find the words to explain how much i support this. my ls just had a double elimination bracket style tournament with 650k in prizes. it was so much fun.

perhaps we'll finally see the blackhorn and stripehorn?

[Lazus]

you know what would be a good idea if after they update it, GM or other SE employees can hold tournaments with their own mobs for prizes.

[Harukusan]

WTH an update to Pankration but not Ballista? This sucks... Even Pokemon wannabe content can catch the dev team's attention...

[Karbuncle]

WTH an update to Pankration but not Ballista? This sucks... Even Pokemon wannabe content can catch the dev team's attention...

Got a problem with it bro we can go Ballista right now buddy.

JUST KIDDING! No I don't really use Ballista to play hard and act like a drunk 14 year old Halo player screaming racial slurs because i managed to get a kill.

But yeah, I'm sure a Ballista update will eventually come. But really, if you remember an interview SE gave a while back, They never even wanted PVP in FFXI, is was added later do to some demand or something. they envisioned FFXI as a game where adventurers worked together only, not in pvp/conflict. But they added ballista because there was a demand for PVP. Of course to make it seem less "Combative" they made it a "Training" type battle, which makes sense.

Hopefully we will see some update? I should read that Ballista thread.

Given enough demand they'll update it, Just bide your time! it will come.

[Sesh]

All you hardcore pankration-ers will be happy to hear that we received word from the lead saying he would like to make adjustments to the system as well as add new ways of playing and rewards. However, it will be a little while before we implement anything.

It's been over a half of a year now year now Camate, I know nobody cares about pankration, but damn it I do and I want new mobs! XD Any info about upcoming changes would be appreciated. :)

P.S. ZNMs could use an overhaul with, new tiers and gear while you're at it.

[Camate]

I know some of you are really excited and anxious to see changes/additions to the Pankration system. The development team would like to revisit this system, but there are no plans to do anything immediately. Hang in there a bit longer and we will be sure to keep you updated on any plans they have!

[Quetzacoatl]

*facepalm* did we really need this?

DID WE REALLY NEED THIS?

PLEASE ANSWER MY QUESTION, FORUMGOERS.

You all need to focus on the bigger things like Voidwatch's craptastic loot system before worrying about stuff like this...I swear to god, it's people like almost everyone in this thread who drive Square-Enix off course. Pankration is one of the last things we need to worry about.

[Coldbrand]

I don't care about Pankration.

[Ophannus]

I know some of you are really excited and anxious to see changes/additions to the Pankration system.

I have no words.

[Crysten]

I know some of you are really excited and anxious to see changes/additions to the Pankration system.

Some of us might be, but the vast, vast majority of us aren't.

[Windwhisper]

No offense Camate, but i laughed real loud and long after reading this. Escpecially since you used the words excited and anxious in context to the Pankration.

[Urteil]

You might have had better luck with Ballista.

Update that with the 10 minute process of tripling the exp and gil reward, and you might actually get a positive response from some of those people.


Whatever the dev-team is smoking, can you please direct us to where we can buy it?

[idx1]

Will we be able to have our monsters follow us around carrying extra inventory space?

If not, what could possibly be exciting?

[Zirael]

Will we be able to have our monsters follow us around carrying extra inventory space?

If not, what could possibly be exciting?
Maybe Umbral Marrow, Mulcibar's Scoria, Riftdross/Riftcinder will be a prize for each win in Diablo? That would get me really anxious and excited :D
My pet can hold top spot for several dozen hours if not days, but I haven't used it for months since there's no point in acumulating so much tokens...
Maybe dev team means all those people waiting to get a head start on 500 Pandemonium Warden kills? Sorry for pesimistic tone, but once you level up your pet, there;s not much to it aside from getting few tokens for ZNM camera.

[Alhanelem]

Ballista is far more deserving of an update than Final Fantasy Pokemon.

[Xantavia]

I know some of you are really excited and anxious to see changes/additions to the Pankration system. The development team would like to revisit this system, but there are no plans to do anything immediately. Hang in there a bit longer and we will be sure to keep you updated on any plans they have!
Am I the only one that read past the first line? I see this as a light-hearted post, and that no resources are being used to do anything with pankration.

[Raksha]

Am I the only one that read past the first line? I see this as a light-hearted post, and that no resources are being used to do anything with pankration.

inb4 stage 3 mythic upgrades: 5000 pankration scorias

[Camate]

Perhaps this information may not interest you, but that does not mean it does not excite and interest other players who play the game.

Even though the development team is looking into reworking one aspect of the game, doesn't mean that they are not focusing on other aspects as well.

With that said, if you do not have anything nice to say in a thread that started off positive, I would ask that you refrain from posting in this thread at all.

[Economizer]

Perhaps this information may not interest you, but that does not mean it does not excite and interest other players who play the game.

Question: (I think it is interesting and exciting at least) what's your favorite pet to use in Pankration?

[Ryce]

Thank you, Camate. Shut these idiots up! I'm not one of the players who cares about Pankration, but I am one of the players who can't stand the negativity on this forum.

We have a great game here, and an excellent venue for sharing our ideas and opinions. Stop ruining it with your endless complaining and thinking you know anything about producing an MMO.

[Fusionx]

Question: (I think it is interesting and exciting at least) what's your favorite pet to use in Pankration?
Snurble!... oh wait wrong game.

[Economizer]

Stop ruining it with your endless complaining

There are legit reasons to complain, but it gets a bit out of hand at times. I mean, seriously, it isn't like Pankration or other bit of content that might not be super popular like Chocobo Racing really hurt anyone's ability to get stuff done.

[Camate]

Question: (I think it is interesting and exciting at least) what's your favorite pet to use in Pankration?

I'm no pro at Pankration, but I would have to say Chigoes. Watching a small insect totally own a larger pet is amusing to me. :)

[Dann]

Im gonna chime in here and say I also look forward to the changes because its a fun distraction for when you wanna take a break from linkshell events and pickup groups.

Also my favorite monster would have to be the giant rams love watching them tower over the competition!

[Brentt]

I love pankration and any improvements made would be most welcome! My favorite mob has always been the Wyverns!

[Rukkirii]

My favorite are coeurls. They are so cute yet ferocious!

rawr.

[Francisco]

I think it'd be quite corking if Pankration offered rewards like Zeni or ZNM pops... Current Zeni system is pretty terribad in my opinion.

I liked Apkallus for pets.

[FrankReynolds]

Any chance they could make it so that pankration:

takes faaaaaar less inventory (maybe make a camera that holds all of your pictures as KI?)
& Gives zeni as a direct reward

???
That would make pankration tolerable, if not popular.

[Unleashhell]

Does this mean those trophies that were in the dat files a while back will finally be in use? Or are they already and its just been that long since I did Pankration? Time to bust out the Elemental and the Ghost.

[Dragoy]

For those against this: Not everyone care about Voidwatch, or what ever it is that you want. ^^
There's always at least two sides of a coin, and as mentioned, working on one aspect doesn't normally mean that the content you care about gets any less love.

So if you have nothing good to say, there really is no need to say it. :]
I, for one, never tried Pankration. I wanted to, but sort of always forgot to.
This news does interest me, and it does encourage me to look into it if/when changes are made, if not before.

Just my thoughts~

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Question: (I think it is interesting and exciting at least) what's your favorite pet to use in Pankration?My endrain flea.

[Arcon]

My endrain flea.

Attack Speed Bonus Apkallu. Especially nice if combined with Endrain. However, not easy to get by. Maybe I should try and go hunt for it again, should be a lot easier now.

[Ezekieal]

i <3 my spider Mighty Fang, has stacked str and att endrain and insta stoneskin, hits like a freight train, just wish it used sickle slash more often

[Dreamin]

Perhaps this information may not interest you, but that does not mean it does not excite and interest other players who play the game.

Even though the development team is looking into reworking one aspect of the game, doesn't mean that they are not focusing on other aspects as well.

With that said, if you do not have anything nice to say in a thread that started off positive, I would ask that you refrain from posting in this thread at all.

I think its' great that the Dev Team cares even for the most lowly attended events (you guys going to look into Garrison next?). But seriously, when SE has publically acknowledged the fact that FFXI is already on a skeleton dev crew (their words not mine). Can we actually SEE what the Dev Team's priorities are??? Seriously, to me when you're on a low level crew as is and you waste your time on items that very few number of players even do and ignore all the other bigger problems. It's like we're talking to a freakin WALL. [Granted I dont know what that percentage is and would be delighted to see an actual percentage is. Or does the Dev team also have no idea what that number is like everything else since they're clueless as to what their playerbase do?]

If SE is willing to spend efforts into improving Pankration, I'm demanding that they spend the effort in all the other low attendance events like Garrison, etc.

[Dreamin]

For those against this: Not everyone care about Voidwatch, or what ever it is that you want. ^^
There's always at least two sides of a coin, and as mentioned, working on one aspect doesn't normally mean that the content you care about gets any less love.

So if you have nothing good to say, there really is no need to say it. :]
I, for one, never tried Pankration. I wanted to, but sort of always forgot to.
This news does interest me, and it does encourage me to look into it if/when changes are made, if not before.

Just my thoughts~

I agreed in theory BUT only when you have a full development team. SE already stated that FFXI is now down to the bare minimium skeleton crew as is because all the resources has gone into fixing FF14. So given that, you can't blame people for being against wasting efforts into events or things that very little playerbase actually do.

I'm not against SE in fixing or improving anything at all. I'm just against how they are prioritizing the limited resources that they have. Which you and I and other players PAID FOR by the way.

[Luvbunny]

Some contents are unpopular or dead to the player base for GOOD REASONS. Now if you are planning to fix them and create more incentives to revitalize them - all the power to the developers - this is actually a welcome trend - and we applaud you for this. Now, please make a priority on which dead contents you are going to revive - for example Voidwatch and Walk of Echoes should be TOP priority now - with Salvage, Einherjar and Nyzul as second on the list and finally Limbus. When you have limited resources - you prioritize - or maybe divert the fund from the craptacular spectacular of FF14 and put it to work on actual working game with paying subscribers. But it is good to know that developers are willing and planning to revise dead contents.

[Dragoy]

I agreed in theory BUT only when you have a full development team. SE already stated that FFXI is now down to the bare minimium skeleton crew as is because all the resources has gone into fixing FF14. So given that, you can't blame people for being against wasting efforts into events or things that very little playerbase actually do.

I'm not against SE in fixing or improving anything at all. I'm just against how they are prioritizing the limited resources that they have. Which you and I and other players PAID FOR by the way.
Yeah, I certainly wouldn't blame anyone like that.
I fully understand that players want them to fix their new stuff first; the things they are doing now.
Nothing against that, either.

I imagine they are balancing (hrhr) their forces on the old/new content fixing as good as they can, without the newer losing anything really.
Most of what I see is that the drop-rates for Voidwatch are too low, but they already said it's how they want it to be so...

That's in another topic, though. ^^;

I really gotta look into this Pankration soon... slept most of the afternoon/evening grrr this is not how to get things done! Need a taimu-mashiin~

[Manicora]

All you hardcore pankration-ers will be happy to hear that we received word from the lead saying he would like to make adjustments to the system as well as add new ways of playing and rewards. However, it will be a little while before we implement anything.

This means what, They are gona Re-skin it, and make it 100% dif? Id rather do as the 1st person suggested and just open up New Mobs to use and Maybe give rewards to those who have taken the time to Level there pets. Need to up the Cap as well and make Certain Skills cost less cuz more mobs wont be able to use a 70 pt Terror move and still be able to Fight and get a Win untill Very high levels.

[Claquesous]

I'm so with Camate. I absolutely love Chigoes as pets. My best one had innate attack speed bonus, and I gave it auto-terror. When I was lucky, my opponent would never even get to swing at me.

My biggest request for Pankration would be BALANCE. (Yes, I said the naughty word.) It's so boring to go in day after day and see the current champion with 478 wins is a Dark Elemental. I personally don't think elementals should even be allowed as pets. I'd also say that there are a couple abilities like auto-phalanx, and auto-stoneskin that are far too strong. I'm totally against them existing, but they need to be tweaked down a bit.

[Earwig]

Attack speed bonus + instant haste opo-opo... My favorite...

[Mohit]

I won't go the route and say Pankration doesn't need attention. Anything that can be made fun is worth it!

1) Real rewards. Does not have to be armor/weapons. Can be xp, gil, CP, Assault points, Notes, crour. Can be anything really.

2) expanded mob choices. Needs modernization.

3) creative buffs to mobs.

4) more control of pet.

5) can even have pup, bst, drg, and smn beastmaster mobs like Yagudo and gobbies.

6) maybe even have players buy upgraded buffs and upgraded pets. The most dedicated can work toward behemoth type pet or something.

7) access to real TP moves like Helldive or something. ability to work toward those TP moves.

Just some ideas. The goal is to make it worth playing and make it fun.

[Liir]

I concur with the posts about Ballista being more deserving of an update than Pankration. Could we get some official word about Ballista? Even if it's "we are probably never going to touch it again". I'd love to know. Ballista doesn't need THAT much updating to become a bit more appealing to players.

[Kristal]

My favorite are coeurls. They are so cute yet ferocious!

rawr.

I have a chibi spring treant :D It's pretty rare to see a spring treant ingame, let alone a chibi version of it, so I was kinda surprised to see it actually turned into that when other unique models don't translate into Pankration.

I used to have a orobon with some pretty nice stats, but I accidentally dropped it when I intended to drop excess soul plates I couldn't trade to the Zeni NPC...

Oh, that reminds me.. will the Twinkling Treant make a return? I'd love to see if that one makes a pankration pet as well :D

I do hope that when the pankration update hits, they will fix the trait stacking glitch that makes some mob builds (nigh) impossible to beat, and balance the pets better. Spheroids have almost no HP, chariots are defenseless on the sides (where opponents will automatically run to to avoid special attacks), etc. Oh, and why no automaton pank pets?

Also, faster rounds.. why do you have to wait 3 minutes for the next fight when a fight is over in 1 hit...